Philosophy and Simulation: The Emergence of Synthetic Reason - Softcover

DeLanda, Manuel

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1474252842 ISBN 13: 9781474252843

Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic, 2015

Synopsis

In this groundbreaking book, Manuel Delanda analyzes all the different genres of simulation (from cellular automata and generic algorithms to neural nets and multi-agent systems) as a means to conceptualize the possibility spaces associated with casual (and other) capacities. Simulations allow us to stage actual interactions among a population of agents and to observe the emergent wholes that result from those interactions.

Simulations have become as important as mathematical models in theoretical science. As computer power and memory have become cheaper they have migrated to the desktop, where they now play the role that small-scale experiments used to play. A philosophical examination of the epistemology of simulations is needed to cement this new role, underlining the consequences that simulations may have for materialist philosophy itself.

This remarkably clear philosophical discussion of a rapidly growing field, from a thinker at the forefront of research at the interface of science and the humanities, is a must-read for anyone interested in the philosophy of technology and the philosophy of science at all levels.

About this title

About the Author

Manuel DeLanda is a distinguished writer, artist and philosopher. He began his career in experimental film, later becoming a computer artist and programmer. He is Gilles Deleuze Chair and Professor of Philosophy at The European Graduate School / EGS, Switzerland and lecturer in Architecture at Princeton University, USA. He is the author of Philosophical Chemistry (2015) and Philosophy and Simulation (2011).

Edition details

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Publication date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1474252842
• ISBN 13: 9781474252843
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 232